1. Field of the Invention
The present invention refers to a technique for optimizing the installation, use and operation down hole of auxiliary equipment employed during the production of fluids from subsurface reservoirs.
2. Summary of Prior Art
It is a common practice in the oil and gas industry to optimize the use of auxiliary equipment in well bores using metallic pipes. These devices are inserted into the pipes and used to provide energy, register and/or acquire data or manipulate and activate equipment and systems in the well bores. It is also known that these devices have limited mechanical resistance therefore, the weight of these devices, acting on their cross-sectional area, creates stresses that are higher than their inherent mechanical resistance. It is therefore necessary to distribute their total weight in limited sections. The partial weight of these sections must be loaded onto an internal section of the metallic pipe and throughout the required length.
The operation of inserting the total length of these devices into the metallic pipe is carried out by extending its length onto a surface and then inserting the auxiliary equipment and devices. The devices are inserted from one side of the metallic pipe by the use of cables or tubes that are pulled from the other side. In order to overcome the mechanical limitations imposed by the limited mechanical strength of the devices, a mechanism that takes the weight of the devices when in the vertical position in the well bore is attached.
When the installation of the devices through its entire length in the internals of the metallic pipe is completed, including the load bearing mechanisms attached to the devices, the metallic pipe is then spooled onto a reel of large diameter for eventual utilization in the well bores. The problem to be resolved is unloading the weight of the devices to the internal walls of the metallic pipe for each particular section and through the entire length of the metallic pipe. This is achieved at the end of the inserting process when all the suspending mechanisms are placed into the pipe; they must be activated simultaneously.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,435,351 discloses anchoring mechanisms that are activated by mechanical forces and by chemical action provided by purpose made fluids introduced into the metallic pipe. The use of chemicals is problematic because in most cases they are of a corrosive nature. The actuation and release of each anchoring mechanism that is gripping the internal walls of the metallic pipe is also very complex and difficult to achieve. Additionally, this gripping action creates damaging indentations and deformation onto the walls of the metallic pipe that can lead to a failure.